Number Fifty-Four, May 4, 2006

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IN THIS ARN-ANNOUNCE:

VIDEO INTERVIEW: The Incorrigible Dr. BerlinskiWhat happens when a mathematician takes a close look at the just-so stories of Darwinian evolution? The stories quickly change from plausible to ridiculous. Berlinski likens the cow to whale evolution to the engineering task of converting a car to a submarine. Why are the 50,000+ required morphological changes not found in the fossil record? From the producers of the Icons of Evolution documentary, this video interview is now one of my top five “must watch” videos on origins.

NEW BOOK: Darwin’s Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the ID Movement.
This book reviews and celebrates the life and thought of Phillip Johnson and the movement for which he has served as chief architect. Editor William Dembski presents eighteen essays by research scientists and philosophers who have known and worked with Johnson for more than a decade. They provide personal in-depth insight not only into the current issues, but also into the man, his convictions, and his leadership of the intellectual movement that called into question Darwinian theory.

COMMENTARY: Review of the latest ID musings by Denyse O’Leary
ARN correspondent Denyse O’Leary gives us a tour of ID from recent editorial pages. This handy synopsis includes summaries and links to over 30 stories “some to pin up on your wall and some to put down on the bottom of Fluffo's litter box.” Good, bad, or ugly, it's obvious people are talking about intelligent design.

The producers of the critically acclaimed documentary Icons of Evolution recently sat down for an interview with Dr. David Berlinski. The interview was a lucid and entertaining critique of Darwinian evolution and addresses the following topics and questions:

Unanswered questions

Head scratching mathematicians

What is evolution, and why does it remain controversial?

Life sent from outer space?

Dogs stay dogs – bacteria stay bugs

Finch beaks and nutty journalists

Transitional sequences

You lead a cow to water…

Is similarity in structure among animals, or “homology,” evidence for evolution from a common ancestor?

Good, good, good, good mutations

Sheer dumb luck

Can Don Quixote evolve into War and Peace?

Self-critical science…and other myths

A rebel without a clue

Going 98 in a school zone

Power corrupts, but absolute power is kinda neat though

Amusing anecdotes or Marxist conspiracy?

“Progress might have been alright once, but it has gone on too long.” – Ogden Nash

Profound ignorance

“Freedom of the press is limited to those who have one.” – H.L. Menchen

Regnant priests of a powerful orthodoxy

“Never let school interfere with your education.” – Mark Twain

Let’s win one for the Gipper!

Here are just a few of his amazing statements in this interview:

“The claim that all skeptics of Darwinian orthodoxy are Christian Fundamentalists stands refuted by me. I’m neither a Christian nor a Fundamentalist. But lots and lots of people are skeptical in the scientific community.”

“The interesting argument about the whale, which is a mammal after all, is that if its origins where land-based originally…what do you have to do from an engineering point of view to change a cow into a whale?...Virtually every feature of the cow has to change, has to be adapted. Since we know that life on earth and life in the water are fundamentally different enterprises, we have some sense of the number of changes…I stopped at 50,000, that is morphological changes, and don’t think that these changes are independent. What’s interesting about the cow-to-whale transition is that you can see that a different environment is going to impose severe design constraints on a possible evolutionary sequence…and what does this suggest about what we should see in the fossil record?”

“Let’s portray Darwinian evolution for what it really is—a collection of 19th century anecdotes that are utterly anything like we see in the serious sciences. That would be my favorite position—yes biologists do agree that this is the correct position for the origin and diversification of life, but here are some points you should consider as well:

the theory doesn’t have any substance

its preposterous

its not supported by the evidence

the fact that the biologists are in uniform agreement about this issue could as well be explained by some solid Marxist interpretation of their economic interest.

That would satisfy me. It’s not asking for much is it?”

Some will find him persuasive, others simply inflammatory. Perhaps the best way to describe him would be from one of the nation's leading advocates of "Darwin-only Education" She called him "incorrigible."

About Dr. David Berlinski
David Berlinski was raised in New York City, educated at Columbia College and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. He later became a Fellow of the Faculty in Mathematics and a Post Doctoral Fellow in molecular biology at Columbia University. He has taught philosophy, mathematics, and English at Stanford, Rutgers, Columbia, the Universite de Paris at Jussieu, the University of Puget Sound, the University of Santa Clara, San Jose State University, and San Francisco State University.

He has been a fellow at both the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques. He is the author of works on systems analysis, differential topology, theoretical biology, analytic philosophy, and the philosophy of mathematics, as well as the author of A Tour of the Calculus, The Advent of the Algorithm, and Newton's Gift. Berlinski is currently a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute.

Darwin's Nemesis:
Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement

With the publication of Darwin on Trial in 1991, Cal Berkeley legal scholar Phillip Johnson became the leading figure in the intelligent design movement. Exposing and calling into question the philosophical foundations of Darwinism, Johnson led the charge against this largely unquestioned philosophy of materialistic reductionism and its purported basis in scientific research.

This book reviews and celebrates the life and thought of Phillip Johnson and the movement for which he has served as chief architect. Editor William A. Dembski presents eighteen essays by those who have known and worked with Johnson for more than a decade. They provide personal and in-depth insight into the man, his convictions, and his leadership of the intellectual movement that called into question the hegemony of Darwinian theory.

Part II: The Wedge and Its Despisers
5. Dealing with the Backlash Against Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski
6. It's the Epistemology, Stupid! Science, Public Schools and What Counts as Knowledge by Francis J. Beckwith
7. Cutting Both Ways: The Challenge Posed by Intelligent Design to Traditional Christian Education by Timothy J. Standish

Part III: Two Friendly Critics
8. Two Fables by Jorge Luis Borges by David Berlinski
9. Darwinism and the Problem of Evil by Michael Ruse

Part IV: Johnson's Revolution in Biology
10. The Wedge of Truth Visits the Laboratory by David Keller
11. Common Ancestry on Trial by Jonathan Wells12. The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories by Stephen C. Meyer
13. Genetic Analysis of Coordinate Flagellar and Type III Regulatory Circuits in Pathogenic Bacteria by Scott A. Minnich and Stephen C. Meyer

Part V: Ever-Increasing Spheres of Influence
14. Design and the Defense of Reason by Nancy Pearcey
15. Phillip Johnson Was Right: The Rivalry of Naturalism and Natural Law by J. Budziszewski
16. A Taxonomy of Teleology: Phillip Johnson, the Intelligent Design Community and Young-Earth Creationism by Marcus Ross and Paul Nelson
17. Complexity, Chaos and God by Wesley D. Allen and Henry F. Schaefer III

Part VI: Epilogue
18. Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement: Looking Back and Looking Forward by Walter Bradley
19. The Final Word by Phillip E. Johnson

“Celebs, pundits, and freelance opinionators offer thoughts, opinions, gossip, and quotes on ID, some to pin up on your wall and some to put down on the bottom of Fluffo's litter box. Here are a bunch, in alphabetical order. Scroll down to find your fave or your pet hate. If you are writing a paper, these folks may provide good quotes; otherwise, just a coffee break read. I will try to update this post, as I accumulate more opinions. I am, of course, in no way responsible for the truth, charity, sensibleness, or defamation avoidance of any punditry offered. I have interspersed some notes of my own, demarcated as Notes.”

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